The Mirage
Have you ever seen something that you have been waiting your
whole life to see? It’s so beautiful, it’s so marvelous, and it’s so amazing
that you can’t seem to take your eyes off it. It seems so perfect that you
don’t even want to touch it but you keep drawing closer to it. It draws you in
because you can’t believe what you are seeing. What is before your eyes is
within your reach but it also seems so far away that you may never reach it.
So, you get in for a closer look. You squint your eyes because as you get
closer, the image you are looking at seems to get smaller and smaller. But even
though you get closer to examine it, it seems like it doesn’t want to be seen.
What is it that you’re looking at? That perfect marriage
that SHE has, the perfect life SHE seems to be living, the beautiful child SHE
has, HER perfect skin, and everything SHE posts on social media about the
wonderful lessons she’s learning in HER quiet time. You are captivated and you
are wooed by the love that other people have for her. SHE even posts a few
Scriptures to back up what she’s saying. You are convinced that if you do
things the way she does, follow the instructions she gives, and have the kinds
of friends that she has that your life will be as close to perfect as hers is.
So, what do you do? You get closer; you need to see the intricate details of
how she got to be the woman you admire so much. After all, if it worked for HER
why wouldn’t it work for you? But when you get closer to her, you realize that
the image you saw is shrinking and the truth of what is there is nothing like
what you thought you saw.
Mirage: an optical phenomenon, especially in the desert or
at sea, by which the image of some object appears displaced above, below, or to
one side of its true position as a result of spatial variations of the index of
refraction of air OR something illusory, without substance or reality.
In the age of social media where the world is searching for
“like, comments, retweets, shares, etc.” so many are falling prey to what we
believe someone else has. While you sit on the other side of the screen, you
are idolizing something that isn’t really there. We see the words and pictures
people choose to share but we don’t observe the heart that is behind it.
Ministries, movements, and organizations are built on an altar of self and attract
those who don’t have a keen sense of the Creator.
When other women create
personas that demean the women they should be encouraging, a mirage is put
before them. This mirage quenches
something in us that we are thirsting and longing for. Before you know it, your
life is not everything you thought it was because it’s not like HERS. The very
thing that God has called you to do have become lost in your pursuit to have
what SHE has!
But God warned you about all of this before you ever saw the
mirage:
2 Timothy 3:2-7 2 For men will be lovers of themselves,
lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control,
brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.
And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into
households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away
by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth
We can’t blame HER for letting HER brokenness lead her to do
what she does when we’ve done the same thing. That’s what drew you to HER to
begin with: you thought something was missing in your life and instead of
turning away; you couldn’t remove your gaze. But just like with the mirage of
water in a dry land, when you arrived you find yourself grossly disappointed
and wondering how your eyes deceived you.
There is an old children’s Bible song that says “O be careful little
eyes what you see, O be careful little ears what you hear, O be careful little
hands what you do, O be careful little feet where you go, O be careful little
mouth what you say, there is a Father up above and He’s looking down in love”.
SHE has forgotten to point people towards God and His word
while somehow convincing herself that if she revealed how great she is, SHE
could somehow heal herself. And we have somehow removed our gaze from Christ,
because we somehow believe that what SHE has is more powerful than who HE is!
We are all searching for wholeness but we are looking in the wrong place. We
see the woman with the nice house, fancy car, handsome husband, great career, and
crowd of admirers and our assumption is that she has something we do not. In
our pursuit of perfection, we rob ourselves of the peace that only God gives.
The mirage that her persona presents is a tool the enemy uses to keep her
broken and to keep us bound. You see, you will never be happy trying to be her
because God wasn’t thinking of who she’s pretending be, when He created YOU.
The longer you tune in to her performance, the longer you drift away from the
core of who God says you are.
Mark 12:30-31 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment
greater than these.”
You can’t love someone else with a greater measure than you
love God or the love you should have for who He created YOU to be. If you
haven’t learned to love the woman you see in the mirror, looking into someone
else’s mirror won’t help you with that. The struggles we have aren’t for
nothing, it is to refine us into the people God had in mind when He placed us
in our mother’s womb.
Having a mentor and/or accountability partner is great in
your spiritual growth and development as a woman but her life is not yours,
it’s not even hers if she is truly a believer. God’s plans reign supreme so no
matter what steps someone else took to become who they are do not mean the same
things for you. Holiness is the standard we all live for but God’s way of
getting us where He needs for us to be won’t be the same so don’t stress when
your journey is not like someone else’s. Comparison is a thief that robs you of
the glory that God gets out of your unique walk with Him.
Take your eyes off the mirage; it’s robbing you of the real substance
that can only be found by being more like Christ!
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